Introduction to the Virtual File System (VFS)

The Virtual File System (VFS) allows you to make files and folders available to EFT users through the granting of permissions. The VFS allows you to create physical folders and virtual folders.

• Physical folders are folders you create on the local hard drive from EFT.

• Virtual folders refer (point) to existing folders on your computer or another system, similar to a Windows shortcut. Because a virtual folder name is only an alias for the real folder, when you create a virtual folder, you do not have to give it the same name as the folder it references.

On the VFS tab of the administration interface, you can specify which files and folders are available to users, and then specify Group and user permissions for the folders. You make the files, physical folders, and virtual folders available to users by granting permissions based on their Group membership. VFS permissions are constructed to allow users the least restrictive access to folders.

For example, suppose a user is a member of a Group that has read, upload, download, and delete permissions to a folder. Even if the user is a member of another Group that has only download permissions to the same folder, the user will be able to read, upload, download, and delete files from that folder.

User permissions are given priority.

In the folder that the user wants to access, if EFT finds user-specific permissions that are not those from Groups, EFT does not look for any Group permissions. EFT gives priority to individually configured permissions. For example, suppose there is a user with the user name Bob. Bob is a member of two permission Groups that have only download and list permissions for Folder1. However, you have decided to give Bob full permissions for Folder1 without creating a new permission Group. Because EFT looks for these individual user permissions first, then Bob will have full permissions for Folder1 no matter how his Group membership is configured. This same rule implies that if Bob has individual permissions that only allow him to download files from that particular folder, it does not matter if he is a member of two Groups that have full permissions for the folder. Bob will only have permission to download files.

If a user does not have individual permissions for a folder and is a member of more than one Group, EFT gives the user the least restrictive access for the folder.

From their Groups, users receive all the permissions available for the folder. For example, suppose a user with the user name Jan is a member of two Groups, Group1 and Group2, that both have permissions for a particular folder, Folder2. If Group1 has download permission and Group2 has upload permission then Jan will have both upload and download permissions for Folder2.

The All Users Group is the same as any other Group except that it can't be removed from the root folder permissions list.

You can use the All Users Group to determine inherited permissions from the parent folder. If you change any inherited permissions for the All Users group, EFT displays a confirmation message to make sure you want to change the inherited permissions.

EFT supports multiple concurrent administration for most setting changes but not for changes made to the VFS. This means that last committed changes will overwrite changes made by other administrators when both administrators are working from the same version of the configuration.